Bex vs. The Solicitors

This past year we've had a lot of people coming to the door to sell this and that. I hate getting stuck talking to them and a couple I've had to almost argue with to get them to realize NO means NO. NO also means GO AWAY. I've seen No Solicitation stickers on people's front doors and they look so unattractive. But I need something to get these sales people to stop coming to our home. So I decided to make something Bex style.

Here is what I made to advertise our "no solicitation" policy. I need to get an appropriate frame and hang it on the front door. The biggest problem with displaying this on my door is that the front of the house faces west. In the summer, the heat and light is very intense on that side of the house. It would only take one season for the fabric and threads to fade considerably. So I guess I'll keep it by the front door and if someone rings the bell, I'll just shove it in their face. Maybe bare my teeth too.

I hope you like it! I put it in my Etsy shop just in case anyone wants one. I'll make them to order instead of creating several to have on hand. Thanks for stopping by!

Vee Dee

I've managed to get a few things stitched up.  I seem to have a little creative burst and here is what I have finished so far:







I have some more ideas and some are already in patterns. The above zombie valentines are doing fairly well. They take a lot longer to make then I thought but I like them. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum. Sometimes stitching all day means I don't get anything done around the house and the joints don't always care for it.

The weather is finally freezing and there is a bit of snow here and there. I took a couple photos around town in the last week or so. I've been fighting bronchitis and some aches and pains. It hasn't been much fun but it could be worse. I'll try to take some photos tomorrow when I drive up to The Plaza.



Sometimes I do get up and watch the sun rise.



Gas tanks?



We think those are natural gas derricks.




Tschus.

December re-cap

The end is nigh.  End of the year, anyways.  I hope everyone had a lovely holiday.   We really didn't do much as money is tight and family were unable to be with us. But it was a very nice Christmas and the first in our new house!

The last few weeks I've had an influx on orders through my Etsy site. I had a stroke of luck when someone received one of my pieces through her secret santa. She was so happy that she shared it on Reddit and I got orders from that. Thankfully due to those orders and some subversive ornaments I sold, I was able to order a low-priced sewing machine. Next up, geek pillows! (Once I figure out how to run a sewing machine.)


Tschus!

Art therapy

This post is about a piece of art I created to help me heal from a miscarriage. If this subject bothers you, please stop reading now.

I'm not sure how to start this post so I'll just go through technical details first and see what happens.

I started this from a photo that Ron took of me the night we got our first positive pregnancy test. Seeing the word "Pregnant" on the stick was amazing. I always wondered how I'd really feel about it and I felt a rush of happiness. I've never seen such a wide smile on Ron's face before! We laughed, I cried, and then we just settled into a state of nerves and giddiness. Vowing not to tell hardly a soul, we ended up spilling the beans to some friends, his mother and a few coworkers.

As many of you know, that is the kiss of death on an early pregnancy. Why this is, I'm not sure. The happier you are and the more people you tell right away, the greater your chances are of losing it.

Anyways, you can read the miscarriage story here if you don't know it already.

I printed off the never-before shared photo from that night on a piece of fabric designed for computer printers. Then I found an image from good 'ol Google of an outline of the female form. I traced it onto the photo fabric and free-formed a very crude uterus and blood puddle.

This piece is about irony and grief. It's a juxtaposition of the happy, obligatory smiling face next to a positive pee stick and the blank, mute form of a woman, bleeding onto the ground.







To be honest, just manipulating the original photo and then stitching this up made me a little sick to my stomach. There were tears. I had to pause a few times and just do something else for a bit. However, it is finished and now the preoccupation I've had for several weeks over this project is laid to rest. When I look at this, I see happiness, pain and some peace. It's almost as if during the process of creating something, you take all those emotions out of your head and put it into your piece. I can visit the piece and go through the emotions if I choose to, or I can just reflect on it.

There you have it. Art therapy. Eventually I'll get some mounting board and frame it so it can join other pieces on my art wall.

Thanks for reading and looking at it. I appreciate comments but don't feel obligated. Tschus. :)

Shaun of the Dead, in Galaga form

My latest swap piece is finished. The theme this time is a horror mash-up: take something from the horror genre and put it with something seemingly unrelated, like Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

So if you've never played Galaga (seriously?!), then I suppose you need a frame of reference. Click on the hyperlink. It was an old arcade game that I used to play when spending hours at the mall. It was the only game in the scary, dark arcade that I played well. I'm still addicted to it and will happily play when it's available. The old game is pretty pixelated.

I had some help to come up with the pattern idea. Mr.X Stitch suggested using Shaun and Ed for the shooters when I threw my idea of a zombie/space shooter at him. Ron helped me with little details, such as including "red" on Shaun's shirt. I took my old Bruce Campbell pattern and changed the figures into Shaun, Ed, Mary the zombie and a generic zombie from an old Nintendo game. (I'm not sure which one but when I googled 'pixelated zombie' it came up.) I checked a bunch of screen shots from the movie to come up with basic colors to try and match the characters.



It didn't take terribly long once I made myself sit down and do it. I unfortunately didn't consider the size of it when finished so it was a weird dimension, like 8 inches by 7 inches. Not exactly frame-able. So I glued it to a thin piece of canvas and bordered it with some black ribbon. It is drying now. I think it could be popped into an 8 inch by ten inch frame if the person wants to hang it. I believe she lives in Germany so I will have another piece floating around Europe. Cool stuff! I like it. As soon as it is dry and I have some cash, I'll send it on over!

Have a good one, tschus!

“Fleeced” stitch

Didn't I post this yet? Ah well I'm sure you've seen it on my Facebook page. If not, this was the last stitch that I did. It's a quote from the tv series Deadwood. Al Swearengen is one of my faves and I had to finish this piece before I got to the actual town of Deadwood.

I want to make it into a pillow however I've never made a pillow in my life. So I'm considering a small sewing machine purchase and reading a crap load of tutorials. Any thoughts? I'd love some kitchy cowboy fabric for the back.



That's all for now. Pain, tired, looking at some life transition stuff....heh. No biggie!!!

Tschus.

Last couple of stitches

I just realized that I hadn't posted the last couple of stitches I did!  The griffin was from a very complicated pattern I bought.  The pattern numbers were odd so there were odd irregularities here and there.  Drove me crazy!  I had to compensate for some of that on my own so it's definitely not perfect.



That was given to my best friend from high school for Christmas.  I am completely late on her birthday present.  D'oh!

Bender was a pattern I put together in PCStitch about a year ago.  The Phat Quarter (on Flickr) swap theme this time was for a cartoon or comic with text.  I was ecstatic that I already had the basic pattern ready so it was a quick stitch.  I haven't received mine yet but I have no doubt that this time I will receive something during the swap.



If you have PCStitch and want to swap patterns, leave me a comment!  This is obviously not something I can ever sell due to copyright issues but I can definitely swap the pattern for free.

I bought some transfer pens and need to get some energy to work up a pattern on some muslin.  I'll be sure to put in a post after I do!

Catching up

Here are images of the last three projects I worked on.  I have some ideas of things I need and want to do soon.  Some of them involve Christmas presents.  I better get started on those!  November will probably go very quickly.


Come Get Some tote bag feature the almighty Bruce Campbell!



The first of the 1898 Antikamnia Calendar series.



This was a piece done to recognize domestic abuse.  Yes, it's a personal story.  No, not going to blog about it.  However you can check out Craftster if you want to know more about the piece.  Enough said on that.

Rowdy is shrieking at me to go outside so I'm cutting off the blog for now. 

Mas besser

Here is my cross-stitch that I referred to in a previous post.  The recipient received it so I was able to make the photo public finally.  I kind of miss this piece.  It looked good sitting in our living room.



I did a piece yesterday for a Craftster challenge and I'll have that posted by Monday.  I'm also working on a piece I patterned after an obscure 1898 calendar.  Hopefully that will be done soon.  I've got to stitch something together to trade with a woman at work who makes and fixes jewelry.  I've got some things for her to fix!

That is about all I can think of for now.  This is a busy month so I'm sure there will be more blog posts to come.  Tschus!

Things to do to pass (waste) time

We hit the jackpot this weekend at Game Co.  It's like Game Stop only more vintage, and they pay a lot more for your games.  We got a nice credit with them and picked up several used games.  I was pretty geeked to find two Evil Dead games on XBox:



I haven't played A Fistful of Boomstick yet but I did play Regeneration for over an hour today.  It is HILARIOUS.  Ted Raimi does the voice of your midget Deadite sidekick and Bruce does Ash's voice, of course.  There are a lot of catchy one-liners and general hilarity.  The best part?  You can lock on your enemies and punt the Deadite to attack them.  I love it!    Since having an XBox is relatively new to me, I didn't pay much attention to these games before.  I now have all the ED games but not all the games with Bruce's voice.  Which is ok, as I'm not sure how much of a geek I want to allow myself to be.  Here is a link to the games: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/group.asp?grp=49

Crap, I just noticed this as well: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/pilot.asp?pg=action_figure It's a BC action figure.  Crap....$60?  I may be a geek,  but I'm a cheap geek.  Damn.

The other thing I did this weekend was finish up a book called Shadow of the Wind.  It is one of the best novels I have read since The Historian.  The author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, writes very descriptively.  The setting is 1940's and 1950's Barcelona, set in the aftermath of Spain's civil war.  It's a mystery and very well woven.  I'm sure I could have figured out some of the twists and turns if I had let myself think about it, but I really enjoy just letting a story take me along.  I can't write a good review on it but you can find some great reviews on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zafon/dp/1594200106  Apparently The Angel's Game is a prequel that just came out in English only a year ago.  I'll have to grab that up soon.



Long story short, read it.  I was dubious at first but I went from summer beach reading to this book.  You have to get your brain in the right mode to really let the story suck you in.   If you read it, let me know what you think!  I should really join a book club but am too damn lazy.

I also finished another cross stitch but will have to wait to unveil it until after I send it.  I made it for a swap for a photo group I participate in on Flickr called Phat Quarter.  After the recipient receives the piece, I'll post photos of it.  It's actually very lovely if I do say so myself!  I also finished an embroidery not long ago that is for a breast cancer awareness challenge on Craftster.  It's another photograph-to-embroidery piece:



This photo has over 12,000 hit on Flickr, but that's probably only because my boobs are partially showing.  I hate that pervs are looking at it but the photo has done some good.  I've had some people contact me to ask about the reconstructive part of mastectomies.  I personally feel better having talked to someone who has gone through this before me, no matter what it is.  So I keep the damn picture up for others to find, in case anyone else has questions.  The contest on Craftster starts in a couple weeks and I'm eager to sumbit this.

Rowdy is shrieking/whining for his supper so I better go.  Dogs do not like to wait for their supper!  Tschus!

Mr. X Stitch

It was posted today!  See the Stitchgasm on Facebook.  (I'm not sure where it is on the main site, so I have to link you to it on Facebook.)  I'm pretty excited and happy, etc etc etc and to be honest, having this happen and my first Etsy sale in one week is exactly what I needed.  I've been having a hard time keeping my spirits up and got all doom and gloom.  It's good to be reminded that there are good things going on too.

So!  If you are a crafter or looking to start, check out Mr. X Stitch blog about the 1st birthday of the Mr. X Stitch site.  They are having giveaways and other fun things.  Good stuff!  Check 'em out and start subscribing!

Craft-a-frickin-roonie!

Here is my little recap for the last week or so:

My Etsy hasn't sold anything yet however I think I have a few interested in "Ass, the other Vagina."  I have a couple private requests also that I need to get started on.  I'm excited about that because it's fun to make these but even more fun to know that people are going to put it in their homes soon.  As soon as payday gets here, I am off to the crafy store again to get supplies.  I'm geeked!

Speaking of stitchery, I finished my first photo-to-embroidery project.  Here is the result and a comparison of the original photo to the cloth and thread result:





I felt pretty good about the overall end-product.  This has been a complete learning experience for me and I see what I need to work on now.  I have ideas for the next embroidery project already!  I like the idea of taking my photography and doing something more with it.  My ultimate goal is to get a gallery show.  I think I'm on my way as *enter drumroll* I'm going to be featured in the near future on Stitchgasm.  ACK!!!!  This is exciting to me although most of you probably don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.  See the following website: http://www.mrxstitch.com/  I am not sure what day it will be, but one of the people who works on this newsletter is a woman known as Beefrank.  She is a witty, creative genius and her work makes me laugh a lot!  You can see her work on Flickr by going to http://www.flickr.com/photos/beefranck/.  If you appreciate humor, talent and witicisms, please check out her stuff!  Also, subscribe to Mr. X Stitch via the site or Facebook.  (He is also megacool and a Brit!)  This stuff absolutely feeds me inspiration as well as making me laugh.  I can't believe how creative people can be and it is freakin' awesome to see so many talented people out there producing so much stuff.  Ok sorry, I got a little carried away!!

Add that to a confirmation email I received about enrollment in a free digital photography course and I'm about to implode!  Whoopee!

All right, enough of that crazy shit.  As always, I hope everyone is well.  Catch ya later, tschus!

Craftism

General brain befuddlement has prevented any new creativity as of late.  I did however crank out a couple of things about a week or so ago:





I have a set of Hitchcock stamps that I collected years ago that I want to frame.  That is what inspired the Hitchcock piece.  The Super Bitch came from a book of cutsey patterns I bought.  I also happened to find small frames at Wally World and this was an experimentation with small designs.  I'd really like to put it at my desk at work but don't think it would be wise.

Lately I've been looking at embroidery and wanted to try it.  Again I'm lost as to what to stitch.  However I woke up last night with an idea and spent the day looking at the internet for tutorials on how to make the images in my brain come to the fabric.  There are a few photographs I've snapped over the years that I really like and I've decided to make embroidery patterns out of them.  Thankfully there are people out there in the crafty world who blog and make how-to videos for the internet.  Here is part of the pattern I put together:



I'm afraid that I might start filling up the spare room with projects so I put up an Etsy store finally in the hopes of getting rid of some of them.  You can find the store here:  www.ndbex.etsy.com.  So far I haven't sold anything but there is still hope in me to get rid of some things.  I made them pretty cheap!

That's my exciting life this week.  Tschus!!